Israel said that it would be handing over, to the Palestinian Authority (P.A) in the West Bank, the remains of 36 Palestinians buried in the Numbers Graveyard. PA sources said Tel Aviv never officially informed it of this decision.

Salem Khalla, coordinator of the National Committee for retrieving
bodies of slain Palestinians, said that Israel intends to do DNA testing
on the remains for verification.

Khalla added that Israel exhumed the bodies of 30 slain Palestinians,
buried in Be’er As-Sabe’ (Beersheba), on Wednesday, and will be exhuming
the bodies of six more Palestinians, buried in an unspecified
graveyard, before DNS tests are conducted by the beginning of next
month.

He said that the remains will likely be handed over to the Palestinians
on January 7, and that the Palestinians will not accept unidentified
remains, to avoid what happened months ago, when Israel handed over
Palestinian remains, including six unidentified remains that were left
unidentified, until this moment.

Israeli sources said that the decision was made by the Israeli
government, and is part of an Israeli pledge to the High Court to
gradually hand over the remains of all Palestinians buried in several
"Numbers Graveyards", where graves only carry numbers attached to them.

Families of slain Palestinians already submitted DNA samples so that
Israel can compare them to its database of slain Palestinians.

On Thursday, May 21 2012, the Palestinian Authority (P.A) in the West
Bank held an official burial ceremony for 91 Palestinians who have been
buried in the Numbers Graveyard, after Tel Aviv handed over the remains
to the P.A.

The Israeli government decided to release the remains of 36 Palestinians, buried at the numbers graveyard. The remains are for Palestinians involved in bombings and attacks; the decision angered the families of Israelis killed in those attacks.

Israeli Yedioth Aharonoth has reported that the families believe that the release of the remains of “Palestinian assailants” will be like “harming the bereaved families once again”.

The paper said that the families would be filing appeals to the Supreme Court in an attempt to prevent the release of those remains.

The release is planned to be conducted between the fifth and the seventh of this coming November.

Yedioth Aharonoth said that among the released remains are two brothers identified as Imad and Adel Awadallah, of the Al-Qassam Brigades the armed wing of Hamas, Ayaat Al-Akhras, a woman suicide bomber who carried out a bombing in Jerusalem killing two Israel and injuring dozens, in addition to releasing the remains of Ahmad Al-Faqeeh and Mohammad Shahin, who killed four Israeli settlers in Emanuel settlement.

It was also revealed that the remained of Mohammad Al-Qawasmy, who carried out a bombing in a bus in Haifa in 2003 killing thirteen Israelis, will also be handed to the Palestinians.

Other names include Imad Zobeidi who carried out a bombing at a bus station in Kfar Saba, in addition to Ezzeddeen Al-Masrywho carried out a bombing at a restaurant in Jerusalem killing 15 Israelis.

The release of the remains of Palestinians is part of the efforts to secure the release of all remains of Palestinian and Arab fighters buried in the Numbers Graveyard.

On Thursday, May 21 2012, the Palestinian Authority (P.A) in the West Bank held an official burial ceremony for 91 Palestinians who have been buried in the Numbers Graveyard, and their remains were handed to the P.A.

More than two months ago, Israeli Yedioth Aharonoth said that a secret agreement between Israel and the Palestinians was reached to ensure the transfer of the remains of all slain Palestinians, buried in the numbers graveyard.

Israel's handling of Palestinian prisoners' corpses is often disorganised, angering relatives of the dead

Exhumed from an Israeli-numbered grave to be handed over to his family for proper burial, the man in "Casket 5056" lies in a Palestinian morgue a year on - unidentified and unclaimed. Since 1967, Israel has been withholding the bodies of an unknown number of Palestinians interred in numbered instead of named graves.

The Palestinian Campaign to retrieve the bodies of Palestinian and Arab war victims and determine the fate of the missing has documented more than 60 cases of missing Palestinians and about 370 others buried in numbered graves in Israeli-controlled cemeteries.

In May 2012, Israel handed the Palestinian Authority (PA) 91 bodies it had been holding for decades. They were all buried except the man in Casket 5056, whom Israel said was Nasser al-Bouz.

Nasser, who would be 48 years old today, was on Israel's most-wanted list for establishing Fatah's military wing during the First Intifada. In July 1989, his family said he received a message from then PLO chairman Yasser Arafat urging him to head to Tunisia for his safety. He was last seen alive near his hometown of Nablus in August 1989.

"We were told he's in an Israeli secret prison," Wael al-Bouz, Nasser's brother, told Al Jazeera. "Some said he was in a Jordanian prison. Others told us they met him in Germany."

Reports about Nasser's whereabouts contradicted each other. The family, however, was eager to learn anything they thought could help determine his fate. "We knew a lot of the reports were rumours," Wael said. "But we were lost. We wanted to believe he was alive."

The family said Israel never acknowledged detaining or killing Nasser. When his brothers learned his name was on the list of bodies Israel was handing over to the PA last year, they were shocked.

The wrong person

Although they were to receive Nasser in a coffin, his brothers thought they would finally get closure. But it wasn't long before their wound was reopened. "When we opened the casket, we knew the remains were not for Nasser," Wael said.

The family was told that the remains were of a Palestinian killed in May 1989 - three months before the family said they last saw Nasser. That aside, dental records, marks from gunshot wounds, and the clothes size made the family even more suspicious.

DNA tests were performed in Jordan, twice. The results both times came back negative: the remains did not belong to Nasser al-Bouz. Worse yet, the remains in Casket 5056, which the Israelis handed over as Nasser al-Bouz, were found to belong to more than one person.

Lawyers at the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center said it was not the first such case. DNA tests had to be performed multiple times in five other cases of Palestinians buried in numbered graves, before the remains were matched with the corresponding details in Israeli files.

"This is indicative of other mistakes," said Issam Aruri, director of the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center. Bodies in numbered graves are often buried in adjacent rows. The tombs are shallow and bulldozers are used whenever an exhumation takes place. Until 2000, the bodies were not buried in boxes, rather interred in graves with metal plates indicating codes of classified files.

"What they did with non-Jewish bodies - they have this kind of discrimination - is that they don't admit that we are entitled to the same rights and to the same dignity, whether alive or dead."

Not far from Nablus, another Palestinian family has been waiting to properly bury its son for 33 years.

Anis Doleh of Qalqilya died in the Israeli prison of Askalan. In August 1980, he collapsed in his prison cell of a heart attack after joining a 30-day hunger strike.

The family tried to retrieve his body from the Israeli authorities several times. They received answers such as that Anis was released on August 31, 1980 - the date he died.

Futile correspondence

For years, the family was caught in a vicious cycle of futile correspondence with the Israeli authorities.

The family petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court to demand the release of Anis' remains, armed by letters he sent while in prison, reports from the ICRC that Doleh was imprisoned and died while in custody, as well as a reference for a post-mortem issued by the Israeli Abu Kabir Forensic Institute dating back to May 3, 1982.

The appeal was turned down in March 2013. In its decision, the Israeli court said that it has been too long since Doleh's death, and given that the search results of various Israeli authorities didn't yield anything, there would be no use in issuing a decision in favour of the family's demand to release Anis' remains.

"They're lying," declared Hasan Doleh, Anis' brother. "He can't just evaporate." The family is not excluding any options. "Did they steal his organs?" Hasan asked. "Did they use his body for medical training?"

Although there is no indication to what might have happened to Anis' remains, Doleh's fears were rendered legitimate a couple of years ago, when Israeli pathologists admitted they harvested organs from dead bodies without permission of their families.

When asked for a justification of the mistakes made, the Israeli army said transferring bodies to the Palestinian Authority was a gesture of goodwill. "The bodies in question were transferred to the PA bearing the same names as they were given upon their burial," the Israeli army said in a statement to Al Jazeera. "The PA agreed to accept the bodies without conducting a preliminary DNA test."

Because of this, the Jerusalem Center filed another petition earlier this year to the Israeli Supreme Court, this time demanding the establishment of a DNA database.

The Israeli authorities are expected to take samples from the bodies they are withholding, ensure the remains in each casket belong to one person and match the results with their records, Aruri explained. But he is not hopeful. "All we need to fold this page is some effort and good will," he said. "The Israelis are showing neither."

Earlier, the Israeli authorities had offered to hand over about 80 Palestinian corpses. The families were reluctant to receive them, and the Jerusalem Center advised the PA against accepting them - because they were to be handed over unidentified.

"We don't want to get them in a pile," Aruri said. "We don't want to exhume bodies from Israeli-numbered graves to bury them in Palestinian-numbered graves."

Unidentified and unclaimed

At the Abu-Dis Institute of Forensic Medicine lies a body of the man thought to be Nasser al-Bouz. "Technically, the remains can be kept here for another year or two," said Dr Saber al-Aloul, head of the institute.

Since they are unidentified and unclaimed, the remains are to be kept accessible at the morgue for possible DNA matching in the near future. "The procedures to dig a grave are religiously, legally and technically exhausting," al-Aloul said.

According to al-Aloul, the remains belong to a male between 30 and 40 years of age, who died at least 15 years ago. The man in question apparently died of multiple gunshots to his head. "No injuries were found in upper or lower limbs, reinforcing doubts that this person might have been executed," al-Aloul told Al Jazeera.

Somewhere, a family of a Palestinian or an Arab may be living the agony of al-Bouz's family and the fears of the Dolehs - not knowing whether their son is dead or alive. They endure the painful wait to properly bury a loved one, and have his name engraved on a tombstone - where they go to visit, plant a rose, and say a prayer.

As part of the good will gestures to Palestinians in light of the resumption of peace talks, Israel has agreed to hand over to Palestinians the bodies of terrorists who were buried in Israel, Ynet learned Wednesday. Last year, Israel transferred to the Palestinians 91 bodies of terrorists that were buried in a cemetery for enemy fatalities near the Jordanian bodies. At the time, 79 of the bodies were transferred to the West Bank and 12 to the Gaza Strip.Among the bodies handed over at the time were those of the terrorist behind the 1993 Jerusalem terror attack. Palestinian Civil Affairs Minister Hussein al-Sheikh confirmed the details and added that the coming transfer will most likely consist of dozens of bodies. He added that Israel has agreed to transfer all the bodies in its possession to the Palestinian Authority and that the Palestinians were waiting until DNA tests to identify the bodies are concluded. Meanwhile, peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have resumed Wednesday in Jerusalem.

Israeli Yedioth Aharonoth issued a reported, Wednesday [August 14, 2013] of a secret agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (P.A.) in the West Bank regarding the transfer of the remains of all slain Palestinians, buried in the Numbers Graveyard.

The paper quoted a political source in Tel Aviv stating that the agreements is considered “an act of good will”, and aims at boosting and advancing the recently resumed direct peace talks.

The source said that, after Israeli released 26 detainees on Tuesday at night, and the intention to release more Palestinian detainees, the Israeli government decided to release the remains of all slain Palestinians.

Palestinian Minister of Civil Affair, Hussein Ash-Sheikh, stated that the Palestinian side is cooperating with Israel to provide DNA analysis to determine the identities of the slain Palestinians, so that their families can be officially informed, and proper burials can take place.

In late May of last year, Israel handed the P.A. the remains of 91 slain Palestinian, buried in the Numbers Graveyard”, and an official military burial ceremony took place in the central West Bank city of Ramallah.

A Palestinian lawyer submitted a petition to Israel's Supreme Court on Tuesday in a bid to pressure the legal body to open a testing center to identify the remains of Palestinian bodies held in Israeli cemeteries.

Haitham al-Khatib, a lawyer with Al-Quds Center for Legal Aid and Human Rights, called on Israeli authorities to allow relatives to visit a military controlled cemetery in the Jordan Valley where the bodies of hundreds of Palestinians have been interred since the 1960s.

There may no longer be any living relatives for those killed in the seventies and eighties, al-Khateeb said, adding that Israel is violating international law by holding the remains.

Bassem Nakhleh, coordinator of a local campaign to recover Palestinian bodies from Israel, said a DNA testing center is vital, especially after the difficulties in identifying the remains of bodies previously returned by Israel.

In May, Israel returned the remains of 91 Palestinian bodies interred in numbered graves. After the official ceremonies, the remains were transferred to families in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Seventeen bodies were buried in a mass grave in Ramallah because their families could not be identified.

The family of Nasser al-Buz received what was alleged to be his body, but they demanded a DNA test to verify the identity.

Justice Minister Ali Muhanna said a sample of the remains was sent to a DNA laboratory in Jordan, which found it was not al-Buz's body.

DNA tests were only conducted on three of the 91 bodies. Tests found the bodies of Ramzi Jamal Shaine and Anis Rafiq Khalil were correctly identified.

Since the 1960s, Israel has withheld the bodies of hundreds of Palestinians, interred in numbered, rather than named, graves in a cemetery in the Jordan Valley.

The family of a Palestinian whose body was supposedly returned by Israel in May say they have conclusive proof they were given the wrong corpse, and insist they will continue their quest for the truth.

Nasser al-Buz, who co-founded Fatah's Black Panther groups in Nablus in the late 1980s, has not been heard from since August 1989, his family says.

After 23 years of trying to uncover what happened to Nasser, his family was notified that he would be among the bodies of 91 Palestinians returned by Israel this May, in what it described as a "gesture" to President Mahmoud Abbas.

"When we opened the coffin we received from the Israeli government, we found a dead body of a man who looks to be in his forties," Nasser's 39-year-old brother Subhi told Ma'an.

"The body didn’t have metacarpus (hand bones) and a silver tooth was also found. Further, the trousers were bigger than Nasser’s size," he continued.

"I swear when we were carrying the coffin in Ramallah, all my brothers and I felt that it was not our brother Nasser."

The Palestinian Authority minister of justice announced last week that a DNA test found the body was not Nasser's.

"Three blood samples and a saliva sample were taken from me at Rafedia Hospital in Nablus and were sent to Jordan for DNA tests. The results were negative, though the test was done twice," Subhi al-Buz said.

"The case isn’t over, and we will keep going after the truth as we feel our brother is still alive, and he could be in Israel’s custody," said 43-year-old Ahmad al-Buz.

The family has refused to bury the body, and it is being kept by the Nablus governorate.

Israel never announced that Nasser had been either killed or detained, the family says.

In 1989 he left home headed to Tunisia, intent on sneaking out of the West Bank via Jordan. He was set to meet late President Yasser Arafat, who was based in the north African country at the time.

Two Palestinians, one Muslim and one Christian, killed by the Israeli army on November 11, 1991, and their bodies were held at the “Numbers Graveyard” will be buried Monday after Israel agreed to release their remains.

The two, Ramzi Jamal Attallah Shahin and Anis Rafiq Shukri Mousa, topped Israel’s “Wanted List” since the beginning of the first Palestinian Intifada in 1987, for their activities in the popular uprising in Palestine.

They managed to leave Palestine through Sinai to receive military training at an undisclosed location, and on their way back to the country, they were killed in armed confrontations with Israeli occupation soldiers in the Negev desert.

Their bodies were buried nameless at the Numbers Graveyard, a graveyard used by Israel to bury hundreds of Palestinian fighters nameless; Israel assigns a number to each grave, the number refers to a secret file in the Israeli Intelligence database.

Earlier in June, the Palestinians held an official ceremony for prayers and burial of 91 Palestinians, killed by Israel so many years ago, and buried in the “Numbers Graveyard”.

2 june 2012

IOF soldiers attack funeral of martyr in Al-Khalil

Israeli occupation forces (IOF) attacked the funeral procession of the remains of a martyr in Beit Uwa village, west of Al-Khalil, on Friday, local sources said.

They said that the attack occurred after the mourners laid to rest the remains of Jihad Suweiti, whose body was delivered to his relatives on Thursday after years of dumping him in the Israeli cemetery of numbers.

The sources noted that the soldiers fired teargas canisters at the participants, adding that many of them were treated for breathing difficulty.

1 june 2012

The martyr Reem Rayashi’s grave embraces the rest of her body

The body of Palestinian martyr Reem Rayashi remained divided between the “Cemeteries of Numbers” and her gave in Gaza built by her family to bury Reem’s remains that they received from the occupation right after her martyrdom during a commando operation in Beit Hanoun crossing “Erez”, Northern Gaza.

Rayashi, a mother of two children, had carried out on 14 January 2004 a martyrdom operation targeting a gathering of occupation soldiers and officers in Beit Hanoun crossing and resulting in killing four officers and wounding others.

Rami Rayashi, Reem's brother, told "Quds Press" that right after the operation the occupation authoroties handed over to the family remains of Reem's body weighing only 12 kilograms."

"We thought that it was all that was left of her body and that the rest should have been melted or blown because of the intensity of the explosion, without knowing that the occupation kept the rest of her remains in a grave carrying the number (5176) in the cemeteries of numbers all that period," Her brother added.

Rayashi stressed that when they had buried his sister’s remains sent by the occupation, they had not been aware that there had been another part kept by the occupation. He considered the occupation’s act as unacceptable and aims at punishing the family.

He pointed out that as soon as they receive the body’s remains, they will bury it in her grave in Sheikh Ajlin graveyard with the rest of her body.

Reem Rayashi's commando operation was a heavy blow to the occupation forces and its intelligence since it was carried out at a time when the occupier had been fortifying all its settlements and all military sites in the Gaza Strip making it difficult to approach them.

Ramallah- The de facto ministry of civil affairs in the West Bank said the Israeli government gave them a first list of names of those Palestinian martyrs whose bodies have been held for many years after their murder by Israel inside random graves labeled with numbers.

Quds Press said the national campaign to retrieve the bodies of those martyrs and the ministry of civil affairs would receive 91 bodies on Thursday and transfer them to Ramallah city where a military reception would be held for them. Spokesman for this national campaign Salem Khala stated that Israel would release another batch of 70 bodies from the cemeteries of numbers in mid-June. The 91 names of martyrs include seven Palestinians killed during a heroic commando operation in Tel Aviv in 1975. Israeli political sources reported that premier Benjamin Netanyahu decided to release, those Palestinian bodies as a gesture of goodwill from his side towards Mahmoud Abbas to urge him to resume the peace talks, and noted that the two sides exchanged letters in this regard. The cemeteries of numbers as they are known are different yards where the bodies of Palestinians and Arabs, who were mostly killed by Israel in different incidents, are buried improperly inside tight and shallow graves with no tombstones except metal plates with numbers.List of Palestinians whose bodies will be released[PDF]

The Kol Hai (Live Sound) Israeli Radio reported that on Wednesday morning the Rabbinical Branch of the Israeli Military started the removal of 100 corpses of Palestinians buried in the “Numbers Graveyard” in the Jordan valley, in the first phase on an agreement to hand the bodies to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

The Radio added that the measure was taken following an agreement signed, last week, between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The number of corpses to be handed to the P.A is estimated by 100.

Yitzhak Molho, the special envoy of Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, reached an agreement with Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, to hand the mainly unidentified bodies as an “act of good-will”.

The bodies in question belong to Palestinians killed since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Intifada on September 28, 2000.

Palestinian organizations have criticized Israel for backing out of handing over 86 corpses of Palestinian martyrs, saying the corpses must not be used as bargaining chips.

Israeli military minister Ehud Barak stopped the transfer after realizing that the corpses could be used to bargain for the release of captured soldier Gilad Shalit.

Israel has been holding some 334 bodies of Palestinian combatants in graveyards known as the Cemeteries of Numbers, because the simple graves are only marked by numbers which correspond to files the Israeli occupation holds on those martyrs.

Al-Mezan center for human rights in Gaza said the holding of the bodies was a breach in international law and human rights standards, and added the Fourth Geneva Convention provides that prisoners of war should be buried according to their religious rites.

The group added that, as soon as conditions allow, adequate data must be provided on the deceased, and their graves must be protected and access must be granted to the families who wish to visit, and the remains and personal belongings should be returned to their homelands.

Al-Mezan center has been active in seeking the bodies of the return of Gaza Strip’s martyrs and has filed petitions for that at the Israeli Supreme Court.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has blocked plans to hand over to the Palestinians the remains of 84 militants killed since 1967, a statement from his office said early on Tuesday.

Barak's intervention came just hours after the military confirmed the transfer had been recently approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered a halt to dialogue with the Palestinians about the possibility of transferring the bodies," it said, indicating it was inappropriate in light of the continued captivity of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier who was captured by Gaza militants in 2006 and is still being held.

"This is to check and ensure that it is not a case of transferring bodies that it would not be right to hand over in light of the negotiations for the release of Gilad Shalit or for other considerations," it said.

Netanyahu spokesman Mark Regev refused to comment on Barak's intervention, and would not say whether there had been a change in the premier's stance, although he did refer back to the military's statement which spoke of a decision taken "a number of months ago."

Palestinian Authority Minister of Civil Affairs Hussein Ash-Sheikh had announced Monday morning that Israel would hand over the bodies. The ministry released a list of the names of those would be returned.

Ash-Sheikh told Ma'an radio that the two sides came to an agreement to return the bodies following "long and arduous negotiations" with Israeli authorities.

The announcement was later confirmed by the military which released a statement saying: "A number of months ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the transfer of 84 bodies from the Jordan Valley cemetery of enemy combatants to the Palestinian Authority."

It said the two sides had been holding talks to determine the "execution of the transfer and its exact timing" although it did not refer to the identities of the dead.

Security officials said the release of the bodies was a "goodwill gesture" to President Mahmoud Abbas.

Israeli public radio suggested many of them were suicide bombers, including one who carried out a 2003 restaurant bombing in Haifa, which killed 21 people.

The bodies are currently interred in numbered, rather than named, graves in Israel.

Most of those to be returned were young men killed in their teens or early 20s, many of them during the Second Intifada, or uprising. Amir Ali Abdullah was the youngest when he was killed aged 15 in Tel Aviv in 2004. The bodies of four Palestinian women were among those to be returned.

Salem Khala, a Palestinian campaigner for the return of the militants' remains, said a total of 334 Palestinian militants were currently buried in Israeli graveyards.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday ordered the cancelation of the planned transfer of several Hamas members' remains to the Palestinian Authority, Israeli media reported.

The decision stemmed from the possibility that the remains in question would be compiled as part of the efforts to negotiate a prisoner swap with Hamas, the Ynet news site reported.

Barak also ordered that the remains of 10 Palestinians who used to reside in Gaza be excluded from any future lists, according to the report. It was not clear why they were excluded.

The Palestinian Authority’s minister of civil affairs, meanwhile, said that until news of the handover was revealed Monday, the issue of whether or not bodies belonged to Hamas had not been discussed.

"There was no mention of the political affiliation of the bodies," Hussein Ash-Sheikh said. “It is unbelievable that Israel prosecutes martyrs twice, once when they were alive, and then after they have been buried."

He highlighted that the Palestinian side had not received any official decision from the Israeli side annulling the agreement to return 84 bodies. The handover was supposed to take place within a week.

The Palestinian cabinet on Tuesday condemned the “oppressive Israeli assaults” against Palestinian prisoners depriving them of their rights which international law and treaties guaranteed.

At the weekly meeting in Ramallah, ministers called on the international community to get Israel to abide by international law in this regard, namely the Geneva Convention.

Security officials said the release of the bodies was a "goodwill gesture" to President Mahmoud Abbas.

Israeli public radio suggested many of them were suicide bombers, including one who carried out a 2003 restaurant bombing in Haifa, which killed 21 people.

The bodies are currently interred in numbered, rather than named, graves in Israel.

Most of those to be returned were young men killed in their teens or early 20s, many of them during the Second Intifada, or uprising. Amir Al-Far was the youngest when he was killed aged 16 in Tel Aviv in 2004. The bodies of four Palestinian women were among those to be returned.

Salem Khala, a Palestinian campaigner for the return of the militants' remains, said a total of 334 Palestinian militants were currently buried in Israeli graveyards.

The Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Civil Affairs released a list Monday revealing the identities of 84 Palestinian fighters whose bodies have been held by Israel. The ministry says Israel has agreed to release the bodies to be returned to their families.

Palestinian Authority Minister of Civil Affairs Hussein Ash-Sheikh told Ma'an radio the agreement was reached after "long and arduous" negotiations with Israel. He said a further 102 bodies had yet to be identified.

Palestinians are fully prepared to receive 84 of the country’s martyrs buried at Israel’s secret Cemetery of Numbers, the national campaign to retrieve the bodies of the martyrs has announced.

Negotiations with Israel have led to an initial agreement to release 84 of the 334 Palestinians held at the four secret graveyards known as the Cemetery of Numbers, the campaign’s coordinator Salim Khulla told the Palestinian Information Center.

The preparations include a national ceremony and the formation of a medical board that will examine the bodies and ascertain their identities before releasing them to their families.

The simple graveyards were created by Israeli authorities to bury Palestinian war victims. Bare graves are surrounded by stones and have metal plates with numbers for identification. The numbers are coordinated with secret files of Israeli security officials. The files have details of each body.

Khulla said understandings reached with Israel would ensure the release of more batches of bodies.

Among the martyrs are a number of prominent fighters from the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, and martyrdom operations.

Israel has approved the transfer of 84 bodies from a Jordan Valley "cemetery of enemy combatants" to the Palestinian Authority, officials said Monday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the request months earlier following "extensive staff work and coordination with all relevant authorities," Israel's army said in a statement.

"Over the past few days, Civil Administration officials and their Palestinian counter parts have been discussing the execution of the transfer and its exact timing," the statement added.

Earlier Monday, Palestinian Authority Minister of Civil Affairs Hussein Ash-Sheikh told Ma'an that Israel had agreed to return the bodies of Palestinian fighters killed since 1967 to their families.

Until now Israel had refused to return the bodies to their families. The deceased have been kept in what Israel calls "enemy fighters' cemeteries," known to Palestinians as "cemeteries of numbers."

But Ash-Sheikh told Ma'an radio on Monday that the two sides came to an agreement to release the bodies following "long and arduous negotiations" with Israeli authorities.

The ministry released a list of 84 Palestinians whose bodies would be returned. Their identities have been confirmed by Palestinian forensic experts.

Most of those listed were young men killed in their teens or early 20s, many of them during the Second Intifada, or uprising. Of those to be returned, Amir Ali Abdullah was the youngest when he was killed aged 15 in Tel Aviv in 2004. The bodies of four Palestinian women are among those to be returned.

Israel's public radio said many of them carried out suicide attacks against Israeli civilians, such as a 2003 restaurant bombing in Haifa in which 21 people were killed, aside from the bomber.

Israeli media reports described the bodies as those of "terrorists."

President Mahmoud Abbas and other senior officials will attend a farewell ceremony for the deceased, and the bodies will be returned to their families, Ash-Sheikh explained.

The government will arrange to deliver the bodies to other countries where necessary, he added.

Ash-Sheikh said 102 bodies were yet to be identified, but forensic experts would be sent to cemeteries in Israel to perform DNA tests. The bodies would be delivered as soon as they were identified, he said.

Salem Khala, a Palestinian campaigner for the return of the militants' remains, said a total of 334 Palestinian combatants were currently buried in Israeli graveyards.

Israel has agreed to return the bodies of Palestinian fighters killed since 1967 to their families, Palestinian Authority Minister of Civil Affairs Hussein Ash-Sheikh said Monday.

Until now Israel has refused to return the bodies to their families. The deceased have been kept in what Israel calls "enemy fighters' cemeteries," known to Palestinians as "cemeteries of numbers."

Ash-Sheikh told Ma'an radio that the agreement to release the bodies was reached "after long and arduous negotiations" with Israeli authorities.

The ministry released a list of 84 Palestinians whose bodies would be returned. Their identities have been confirmed by Palestinian forensic experts.

Most of those listed were young men killed in their teens or early twenties, many of whom were killed during the Second Intifada, or uprising. Of those to be returned, Amir Ali Abdullah was the youngest when he was killed aged 15 in Tel Aviv in 2004.

The bodies of four Palestinian women will also be returned, according to the ministry.

President Mahmoud Abbas and other senior officials will attend a farewell ceremony for the deceased, and the bodies will be returned to families, Ash-Sheikh said.

The government will arrange to deliver the bodies to other countries where necessary, he added.

Ash-Sheikh said 102 bodies were yet to be identified, but Palestinian forensic experts would be sent to cemeteries in Israel to perform DNA tests. The bodies would be delivered as soon as they were identified, he said.

An Israeli government spokesman could not confirm the report.

Israeli news site Ynet said "security elements" confirmed that talks had been held, but said no agreement had been reached.